Clive Tyldesley has said there is “nothing manufactured” about the Prince of Wales’s “love for his football team”, Aston Villa, adding “it’s clearly a passion of his”.
Speaking to the Press Association at an investiture at Windsor Castle on Wednesday, the football commentator said William’s support was “a genuine link between the (Royal) family and the national sport”.
He added: “There’s nothing manufactured about his love for his football team. He is not a supporter of the most famous club in the country. He’s a supporter of a team that’s had its highs and lows and is just about to enjoy, hopefully, a wonderful high next week.”
The prince was seen punching the air in delight as Villa beat Nottingham Forest 4-0 at Villa Park to reach their first major European final since 1982. Villa will play German team Freiburg on May 20.
Mr Tyldesley said he felt “very proud, very humbled” at being made a CBE by the Prince of Wales for services to sports broadcasting and to charity. He said: “It is genuinely the job I always wanted to do and I got an opportunity straight from university to join a radio station, as a runner. The first thing that I did was host a late-night rock show but I always wanted to work in and around football.”
Mr Tyldesley said William spoke to him about Villa during the investiture ceremony, adding: “You would be surprised if he didn’t.” He told the Press Association: “Part of me would have loved to have told the King how impressed I was by his speech to Congress a couple of weeks ago but I relayed that to the prince and it was nice to talk some football with him.”
When asked if VAR posed a problem for commentators, Mr Tyldesley replied: “I think all commentators’ problems are first world problems. They might complicate our life but they don’t make the job anything other than what it is, which is the job I always wanted to do.” He did, however, say that changing “the laws of the game to accommodate for VAR is, for me, a little blinkered”.
“Here we are, stressing over the minutiae of handball decisions at an elite level and forgetting the fact that the beauty of the game is that everybody plays it,” he said.
Also in attendance at Wednesday’s investiture was Kerry Davis, the first black woman to play for the England women’s football team who was honoured with an MBE for services to association football and diversity in sport. She told PA that “the women’s, the girls’ game is probably 100 years behind the men’s game” in terms of the opportunities that are available.
Ms Davis added: “If you see when women’s organised football started and when girls started playing football in school…what, five years ago maybe?” She said that she spoke to the Prince of Wales about Princess Charlotte playing football. “When I was at school it was netball, rounders, there was no football,” she added.
Making her debut in September 1982, she scored 43 goals in 90 games over a 16-year international career, including the European Championships in 1984 and the 1995 World Cup. Ms Davis, who remains the third-highest goal scorer for the Lionesses, said representative role models and more female coaches were important in making the sport more diverse.
